Five Father's Days in Jail for Deadbeat Dad

A judge has come up with a creative way to solve the deadbeat parent situation: he sentences dads to Father’s Days in jail for not paying child support. Moms who don’t pay up get consecutive Mother’s Days in the slammer.

Judge James Flannery of Warren County, Ohio, says jail overcrowding makes it hard for him to enforce lengthy sentences, so he came up with this alternative.

He just tested it out on one deadbeat dad who spent thirty-five days in jail after skipping out on more than $17,000 in child support and being brought back by U.S. Marshal’s to face sentencing. He will return to jail this June and for four more Father’s Days after, plus face five years probation.

Flannery told theMiddletown Journal, “Some people think of it as a gimmick, but I just try to say focus on why you’re in jail today and why you don’t get to spend Father’s Day out of jail’ because you are not a very good father.”

Considering the parents get out of jail only to have to return again and again, it should have a lasting effect. But he’s right – it is kind of gimmicky. If a parent doesn’t care enough to pay up based on the ties that bind, will the significance of the day change anything?

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